Domestic Division of Labour

An essay, I wrtie, trying to cover most of the domestic division of labour but you can also include in this essay is Resources and decision making in household and also interlink it with domestic violence.

Examine the factors affecting power relationships and the division of labour between couplesThe domestic division of labour refers to the roles that men and women play in relation tohousework, childcare and paid work.In the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated. In TalcottParsons functionalist model of the family, there is clear division of labour between labours. TalcottParsons say the man plays an instrumental role in which he goes to work to provide for the familyand is known as the `breadwinner'. Parson sees the wife as having an expressive role where she isthe homemaker and looks after the children and meets the family's emotional needs.Parson argues that this division of labour is based on biological differences, with women`naturally; suited to the nurturing role and men to that of the provider. In his view this benefitstheir children and wider society.Elizabeth Bott distinguishes between two types of conjugal roles within marriage which issegregated conjugal roles, where the couple have separate roles which is as in Parsonsinstrumental and expressive role. The other one is, joint conjugal roles where the couple sharetasks such as housework and childcare and spend leisure activities together.However Young and Willmott dispute parsons view and take a `march of progress' view. Theybelieve that the family is gradually improving for all its members and is becoming more equal anddemocratic, They argue that there has been a long term trend away from segregated conjugalroles and towards joint conjugal roles and the `symmetrical family'. The `symmetrical family'means the role of husband and wives are now much more similar as women go to work either parttime or full time, men are now helping with housework and childcare and couples are spendingmore leisure time together (they are more home centred or `privatised'). The rise of theSymmetrical nuclear family is due to major social changes as there have been changes in theposition of women, people are moving away from their communities, new technology and higherstandards of living. They symmetrical family was most commonly found in geographically andsocially isolated and more affluent couples.Feminists reject Young and Willmott's view and argue that little has changed and that women stilldo most of the housework and that the roles still remain unequal.The feminist Oakley criticise Young and Willmott's view that the family is now symmetrical. Sheargues that there claims are exaggerated. She argues that men are more likely to help with the funaspects of childcare like playing with them rather than helping with housework for example only15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework and only 25% had a high level ofparticipation in childcare.However Gershuny found that wives who worked did less domestic work, wives who did not go towork did 83% of housework and wives who worked part time did 82% of housework. Whilst thosewho worked full time did 73% of housework. Gershuny says that there is tend towards greaterquality for women and social values are adapting to women working and that men are doing morehousework but they still tend to take responsibility for different tasks.Hilary silver and Juliet Schor say the burden of housework on women has decreased as goods andservices that housewives previously had to produce themselves are now mass produces such as

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However critics argue that working class women may not be able toafford these goods.Feminists also argue that there is dual burden of work and unpaid housework this is so menbenefit from both domestic labour and wage earnings. They also take upon emotional work whichis usually seen as a `labour of love' as it involves caring and look after family members.…read more